First minister Humza Yousaf urged to take action on 'dangerous and unacceptable' state of Caithness roads

Scotland's new first minister Humza Yousaf has been urged to take swift action to sort out the deteriorating roads and pavements in Caithness.

Iain Gregory, the co-founder of the Caithness Roads Recovery campaign group, is writing to Mr Yousaf to call for action over their "dangerous and unacceptable condition".

It comes after Mr Yousaf said he was aware of how difficult the roads in the far north can be when he took part in a hustings event for the SNP leadership contest in Inverness earlier this month.

Mr Gregory, speaking at this week's meeting of the Thurso Community Council, said he is going to write to the first minister, who took over his new role on Wednesday, to ask him "to provide a very substantial emergency funding" to tackle "the third-world conditions currently endured by the people of this county".

"The council maintained roads network in Caithness is in a state of virtual collapse, with many roads dangerous to use. The constant response from the Scottish Government is that this is a matter for the Highland Council, ignoring the fact the sums require greatly exceed the council's resources," said Mr Gregory, a former senior police officer.

He wants to know what action the first minister will take to address the issue. "We have maintained from day one of the campaign that Caithness has been ignored, marginalised and neglected and that centralisation to Inverness has been an unmitigated disaster. This, combined with constant underfunding of the Highland Council, allied with ring-fencing of what money there is, has resulted in a situation where we face a near total collapse of our roads infrastructure."

Mr Gregory also pointed out that the roads are worse in Caithness than other parts of the Highlands with the number of defects here being 6.65 for every kilometre. The figure for Inverness is 2.13 a kilometre and 3.49 for Ross and Cromarty. In Nairn it is 0.62. "That means that Caithness has over ten times the level of defects in Nairn," he said.

Community councillor Colin Johnston agreed that something has to be done about the condition of the roads but said: "Sometimes it feels as if we are beating our heads against a wall."

Mr Gregory replied: "There is no way we are giving in. We have got to keep fighting. It is the only way. Every day we are hearing from people who are paying their taxes, paying their bills, looking after their families but are in absolute despair about what's happening. It has got to stop and we will continue to fight on until it is put right."

Regards the hustings meeting in Inverness, Mr Gregory also said it was "very pleasing" to hear all three candidates for the SNP leadership – Mr Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan – identified a need to look at the future of Highland Council.

"There was also a clear statement of intent to look at allowing greater financial freedom, relief from ring-fencing, additional funding and greater devolution of powers to community councils," added Mr Gregory.

Mr Johnston commented: "They are putting up the council tax but we are not getting better services."

Thurso and Northwest Caithness ward councillor Struan Mackie said: "The public has every right to be angry. Taxes are going up but nearly all the services are going down."

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